1. Field of the Present Disclosure
This disclosure relates generally to vibration pickups for stringed instruments and particularly to an optical pickup with transduction circuit for stringed instruments.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Kawabata et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,472,943 discloses a circuit using two coils as pickup elements influenced by string vibrations. The circuit simulates movement of the pickup elements for changing tone. Rowe U.S. Pat. No. 4,061,934 discloses a pickup using a piezoelectric element in contact with the strings of the instrument. Underwood U.S. Pat. No. 4,147,084 discloses a bridge with an integral transducer element. Melvin CA 2053118 discloses an electromagnetic pickup for an instrument with steel strings or strings with a metallic coating. Nakamura U.S. Pat. No. 5,189,241 discloses a pickup having a differential amplifier for eliminating noise. Hoshino U.S. Pat. No. 5,539,147 discloses a guitar pickup structure which includes pickup elements located below the guitar string's saddle to pickup vibrations of the saddle. Yamada U.S. Pat. No. 5,945,622 discloses a piezoelectric pickup inserted between the bridge and the body of the instrument. Hoshino U.S. Pat. No. 6,198,036 discloses an electric guitar tremolo bridge which holds the instrument's strings in contact with a piezoelectric pickup.
The related art described above discloses electric induction, electromagnetic and piezoelectric transducer pickups for musical instruments, e.g., stringed instruments. However, the prior art fails to disclose optical transducer methods. The present disclosure distinguishes over the prior art providing heretofore unknown novel and non-obvious optical transduction approaches with advantages as described in the following summary.